1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadcast signal processing system and a method for searching a storage device thereof.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
One of digital TV application services, which are increasingly popular, is providing an additional convenience function to viewers by equipping a broadcast receiver with a storage medium, for example, a hard disk drive (HDD).
A broadcast stream stored in the HDD can support a variety of trick playback modes, such as slow, fast forward, reverse playback, etc., in addition to a normal speed playback. For such trick playback modes, features of a video stream contained in each transport stream (TS) are extracted and related index data is constructed and stored together with the features of the video stream, when storing the broadcast stream. When playing the broadcast stream, various trick playback modes can be performed with reference to the stored data according to viewer demand.
However, a conventional broadcast receiver includes an expensive HDD, thereby raising manufacturing costs of the broadcast receiver. Moreover, since a manufacturer of such a broadcast receiver using a built-in HDD is responsible for HDD maintenance in the event of HDD malfunction, problems, such as inconvenience of an after-sales service and cost burden of an after-sales service, occur. Further, since the interior of the broadcast receiver is narrow, the broadcast receiver may lay insufficient space to mount the HDD therein. Furthermore, since the HDD is fixedly mounted within the broadcast receiver, a user cannot detach the HDD and cannot replace the HDD with another one without assistance from an after-sales service. Accordingly, it is difficult to increase the storage capacity of the HDD. In addition, a broadcast signal stored in the HDD mounted in the broadcast receiver can be played only through the corresponding broadcast receiver and transporting the HDD is not easy.
Although such a broadcast receiver having a storage device mounted therein for a digital video recording function is convenient in terms of a storage function, costs are high and the above-described disadvantages occur.
Even if a remote storage device is used to solve those problems, searching the remote storage device whenever the broadcast receiver is used is time consuming.